The Pirate Party: How to Bypass the Great Australian Firewall

The Pirate Party hates the Internet filter and readily put Exit International in contact with member David Campbell, from Newcastle IT shop ClearComputers.

The brief? To teach 70-year olds to bypass the Internet filter. Campbell accepted the challenge, and proved breaking the filter is not just child's play. Your grandma can do it too.

He was kind enough to supply Computerworld with his powerpoint presentation, so the rest of us can always receive unfiltered Internet.'

Read more...

Death Of The Internet: Unprecedented Censorship Bill Passes in UK

A draconian Internet censorship bill that has been long looming on the horizon finally passed the house of commons in the UK yesterday, legislating for government powers to restrict and filter any website that is deemed to be undesirable for public consumption.

The “Digital Economy Bill” was rushed through parliament in a late night session last night after a third reading.

In the wake of the announcement of a general election on May 6, the government has taken advantage of what is known as the “wash-up process”, allowing the legislative process to be speeded up between an election being called and Parliament being dissolved.

Only a pitiful handful of MPs (pictured above) were present to debate the bill, which was fully supported by the “opposition” Conservative party, and passed by 189 votes to 47 keeping the majority of its original clauses intact.'

Read more...

UK to Kill Off Internet Cafes

The glorious British government, upon which the sun finally set almost 100 years ago, has decided that having open WiFi networks is bad for the general population and it wants them all shut off.

The move, which will kill off using your laptop in an Internet cafe or coffee shop without getting a password from the owner, is part of the Digital Economy Bill.

The government has issued a clarification of the Bill which will mean that many organisations will be open to the same penalties for copyright infringement as individual subscribers, potentially including disconnection from the Internet.

Some legal experts say it will become impossible for small businesses to offer WiFi access to their customers.'

Read more...

Australian Censorship Debate Censored on Communications Minister’s Website

If you’re planning to censor free speech on the internet, what better approach to take than to, er, censor debate about how you’re planning to censor free speech on the internet? Brilliant.

That, according to one sharp-eyed Register reader, is the game being played by Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, whose ministerial website is currently set up so as not to show searches on embarrassing terms such as “ISP filtering”.'

Read more...

France Falls Under Internet Censorship

The French parliament has buckled under pressure and approved the Sarkozy government's authoritarian plans to censor the Internet.

The government opposed all objections to its plans to filter Internet sites, which have been controversial throughout French society. Today La Quadrature du Net, a French openness group, said that the action would give the government total control over its citizens' access to the Internet. It added that Nicholas Sarkozy was using excuses to clear a path for his rules, whch ultimately would come at the expense of liberty.'

Read more...

Time Magazine Pushes Draconian Internet Licensing Plan

Time Magazine has enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon to back Microsoft executive Craig Mundie's call for Internet licensing, as authorities push for a system even more stifling than in Communist China, where only people with government permission would be allowed to express free speech.

As we reported earlier this week, during a recent conference at the Davos Economic Forum, Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer for Microsoft, told fellow globalists at the summit that the Internet needed to be policed by means of introducing licenses similar to drivers licenses - in other words government permission to use the web.'

Read more...

UN Agency Calls for Global Cyberwarfare Treaty, ‘Driver’s License’ For Web Users

The world needs a treaty to prevent cyber attacks becoming an all-out war, the head of the main UN communications and technology agency warned Saturday.

International Telcommunications Union secretary general Hamadoun Toure gave his warning at a World Economic Forum debate where experts said nations must now consider when a cyber attack becomes a declaration of war.

He also called for a "driver's license" for internet users.

"If you want to drive a car you have to have a license to say that you are capable of driving a car, the car has to pass a test to say it is fit to drive and you have to have insurance".'

Read more...

Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites

Internet censorship bills currently working their way into law in the UK, Australia and the U.S. legislate for government powers to restrict and filter any website that it deems to be undesirable for public consumption.

In the UK, legislation slated as the “Digital Economy Bill“, currently being debated in the House of Lords, would allow the Home Secretary to place “a technical obligation on internet service providers” to block whichever sites it wishes.'

Read more...

Stealth Treaty Seeks Strict Controls Over Internet

A sweeping international treaty to regulate how knowledge and creativity may flow on the Internet is now being negotiated. Haven’t heard of it? Funny thing, that’s exactly what the backers of the treaty want. The film, music, publishing and information industries don’t want a public debate about the issues or an open debate in Congress. So they have been working hand-in-glove with the U.S. Trade Representative to move U.S. policymaking offshore and throw a dark cloak of secrecy around everything. The next stop: draconian penalties for anyone who is accused of violating copyright law.'

Read more...

Britain's New Internet Law -- As Bad as Everyone's Been Saying, and Worse. Much, Much Worse.

The real meat is in the story we broke yesterday: Peter Mandelson, the unelected Business Secretary, would have to power to make up as many new penalties and enforcement systems as he likes. And he says he's planning to appoint private militias financed by rightsholder groups who will have the power to kick you off the internet, spy on your use of the network, demand the removal of files or the blocking of websites, and Mandelson will have the power to invent any penalty, including jail time, for any transgression he deems you are guilty of. And of course, Mandelson's successor in the next government would also have this power.'

Read more...

Beginning of the End for the Internet in the UK

Often lauded as the 'CCTV state' and 'the most surveilled country in the world', the UK may soon deliver a killing blow to the Internet as we know it. Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing is reporting some leaked legislation from the UK government that would remove any kind of freedom or privacy that the Internet grants its users.

The proposed amendments to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act would allow the Secretary of State (or 'Pirate-Finder General') to alter the law on an ad-hoc basis without approval by Parliament.'

Read more...

Justice Dept. Demands News Site Server Logs

Declan McCullagh reports for CBS News that the Department of Justice sent a formal request to Indymedia ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day. A grand jury subpoena required the independent news website “not to disclose the existence of this request” unless authorized by the Justice Department. The subpoena and gag order represent a new level of government intrusion into the operation of a free press in this country.'

Read more...

Blackout: Military Personnel Banned From H1N1 Vaccine Websites

If you want to draw attention to a problem, try hiding it. That’s the strategy of several military bases when it comes to the H1N1 vaccine.

Shortly after the Pentagon announced that all Armed Services personnel would soon be facing a mandatory H1N1 vaccination program, I started receiving email from soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors because of a previous story I had written on the anthrax vaccine. Mandatory vaccine programs are a sensitive subject in the military, so it’s not a huge surprise that swift and visceral reactions to the program gained speed.

With a vaccine that was so new and little known about it, like many Americans, troops were heading to the web to find answers to their very legitimate questions — not only for themselves, but for their families who have the option of receiving the vaccine on base. What they found instead is that several websites and blogs with key information asking critical questions had been blocked from their viewing.'

Read more...

French 'Pass' Piracy Legislation

The French National Assembly has passed a draft law that would allow illegal downloaders to be thrown off the net.

The law was narrowly passed by 285 votes to 225.

The French hard-line policy on piracy has drawn worldwide attention as nations around the globe grapple with the issue of piracy.

The ruling majority UMP voted in favour but the Socialist Party has already announced that they will appeal to the Constitutional Court once again.

Read more...

China Moves to Censor Home Computers

The move will give the government unprecedented control over what can and cannot be seen on the internet. In recent weeks, China blocked access to a host of websites, including Hotmail and Twitter, and expressed worries that the internet was becoming a tool of protest.

An issue of the state-controlled magazine, Outlook Weekly, strongly criticised local officials for not paying more attention to the internet, saying that online debate forums in China are not just "ordinary chit chat in free time" but could also be stirring trouble.

Read more...

Cyberbullying Bill Not About Protecting Kids, It is About Shutting Down the Opposition

Arianna Huffington, the liberal darling in bed with the globalist George Soros by way of the Bermuda-based Atlantic Philanthropies, has posted an article on her website penned by Rep. Linda Sánchez, the Democrat congress critter from California. Sánchez is behind the so-called Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act, an effort to impose draconian regulations on the internet.

Read more...

European Open Internet Under Imminent Threat

The internet as we know it is at risk because of proposed new EU rules going through end of April. Under the proposed new rules, broadband providers will be legally able to limit the number of websites you can look at, and to tell you whether or not you are allowed to use particular services. It will be dressed up as 'new consumer options' which people can choose from. People will be offered TV-like packages - with a limited number of options for you to access.'

Read more...

Should Obama Control the Internet?

Should President Obama have the power to shut down domestic Internet traffic during a state of emergency?

Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) think so. On Wednesday they introduced a bill to establish the Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor—an arm of the executive branch that would have vast power to monitor and control Internet traffic to protect against threats to critical cyber infrastructure. That broad power is rattling some civil libertarians.

Read more...

Could a Massive "False-Flag" Cyberattack Be On The Horizon?

Since the attacks on September 11th, 2001, which many have called a "false-flag operation", meaning elements within the Federal Government carried out the attacks while blaming it on its enemies, there has yet to be a massive Internet attack which would, no doubt, cripple the global infrastructure, especially in these unstable times. But could one be in the works in order to usher in complete worldwide government control of the Internet?

Read more...

Aussie Internet-net Will be Drawn Wider

The Australian government is already planning to block legal internet content when its "great firewall" eventually goes live. That is the fear expressed by some of the most trenchant critics of this scheme, including Senators Simon Birmingham (for the Liberal Party) and Scott Ludlam (for the Greens) following another shift in emphasis by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy in evidence to the Environment, Communications and the Arts committee on Monday.

Read more...